Illegal immigrants steal American jobs [Letter]

Let's see: Encourage as many uninvited migrants (new Marylanders, as Gov. Martin O'Malley would call them) as possible to come to the state with in-state tuition, driver licenses, and inferred amnesty while expressing outrage over the cut-off of federal unemployment benefit extensions and the lack of jobs ("Thousands of immigrants seek drivers licenses," Dec. 31). Does anyone else think this is a bad idea?

To be clear, the primary reason our uninvited guests come to Maryland is to take low-paying jobs from our citizens. Every one attracted takes a job from a teenager wanting to help pay for his or her tuition; or a minority mother or father attempting to support their family; or a rehabilitated convict trying to re-start his life.

Ironically, the same people who decried the outsourcing of jobs by corporations now want to throw open the door to people who have crossed our borders illegally. True, many of the outsourced jobs to India and China are higher-paying jobs in technology and customer service than the domestic, farming, and contracting jobs often taken by "new Marylanders." One could draw the conclusion that we only care if those making a higher wage are impacted by the loss of opportunity. Perhaps if the Indians and Chinese had sneaked across our border illegally and consumed our strained educational resources we would have not minded them taking our jobs.